Dante's Tenth Circle
by Rhino7
Summary: Eight hours in quarantine listening to Tifa and Cloud argue was not how Leon had envisioned spending Christmas. warning: not a bubbly holiday story. some angsty undertones.


**Dante's Tenth Circle**

**By Rhino7**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Kingdom Hearts, its characters or storyline. This story is mine. Be advised, while this oneshot takes place around Christmas, it is NOT a happy, joyful, woohoo Christmas story. It's actually very depressing. So if you're wanting a happy, joyful, woohoo Christmas fic, backspace right now. I really wanted to write something happy but…the muse had other ideas. Not sure what inspired it, but I wrote it in just a few hours, so…be gentle. And despite the topic…Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all!**

**..:--X--:..**

Hour six of the quarantine was upon them.

Six hours of being stuck in Merlin's one-room house while the authorities taped the windows and barricaded the doors, keeping whatever outbreak had gotten loose at the Ground Zero of it all. The worst snow storm in the last five years was raging outside, the power had gone out, and thus it was freezing. The only thing chillier than the air inside the house was the silence that had formed between Tifa and Cloud.

Leon, for his part, stayed as far from either of them as he could manage.

So basically, it was just the three of them, left to suffer in what Leon had deemed as the Tenth Circle of Hell. The health authorities had chosen the exact moment to quarantine the area just as Tifa finally caught up with Cloud and confronted him. Before Leon could escape the imminent fight with Aerith and Cid, the entire house had been locked down.

Lucky him.

First there had been the yelling. Tifa Lockhart had a strong pair of lungs on her; he had to give her that. Cloud didn't strike him as the kind of man who responded to screaming and threats, and this was proven true as the blond pretty much shut down and blocked out most of the woman's tirade.

That hadn't gone over well.

Then there had been the silence. Cold shoulder strategy, Leon's personal favorite choice, mostly because it was easier on the ears. Tifa had squared herself off in one corner, glaring daggers but never actually saying anything. Cloud busied himself with that banged up sword of his. Again, Leon kept his distance from either of them. The middle man was a crappy place to be, and since he wasn't particularly close to either of them, he was even less inclined to get involved.

Soon, Tifa's patience had run out and the yelling started up again. Cloud engaged her this time, never raising his voice, but arguing nonetheless. Tifa accelerated into yelling much faster, displaying a temper Leon wouldn't have suspected of such a disciplined person. All sorts of expectations were being broken tonight.

Oh, yeah, has it been mentioned that it's Christmas?

Icing on the cake.

Yeah…it sucked…a lot.

It was really incoherent arguing too, Leon concluded. It was all about why Cloud did this or how could he think of that and where did he go and how had Tifa found this and blah, blah, blah. It was easy enough to tune out and Leon really didn't care what they were fighting about.

Although he'd be a liar if he said he wasn't concerned when Tifa suddenly broke into tears.

It wasn't a loud, gushy, shrieking kind of cry…Thank God…but her body language clearly said shit was hitting the fan now. Cloud had looked awkward and didn't look directly at her, which Leon empathized with. It was hard to talk to women when they were being emotional all over you. That was why every three and a half weeks, Leon found a way to get the Hell out of Radiant Garden and away from the girls on the Restoration Committee.

Maybe Tifa had given up or yelled herself hoarse, but eventually the silence came back, just as thick and twice as awkward.

Merry friggin' Christmas.

Leon had never been much for holidays and decorations and all that hoo-haw. That was more of Yuffie or Merlin's thing. They had been in the middle of stringing the small house with lights and garland and bizarre baubles when the outbreak had struck. It was a nice enough distraction from the yelling for him to poke through the boxes, pretending like he couldn't hear them.

Still, it was the first holiday season since Radiant Garden hadn't been crawling with Heartless or Nobodies. It was the first holiday season back home, truly home, and that had to mean something…for sentimental people anyway. Leon hadn't really cared. But everybody around him cared and no amount of exasperated sighs or eye rolls was going to get them off his case to…what was it…'get in the holiday spirit'.

Leon sighed and rolled his eyes, digressing from the subject. His breath came out in white fog.

Merlin's house was freezing.

He had grown up and lived in the mountains and cold weather for most of his life, so the cold wasn't much more than an annoyance, really. Cloud was apparently impervious to such trivial matters as weather and ignored any kind of offering of a jacket, preferring to sulk in the corner by himself. Tifa was nowhere near dressed for winter weather. What possessed someone to wear short sleeves and knee-length pants in December, Leon couldn't fathom.

The way Tifa had burrowed herself in a blanket on the bed made her look only more miserable.

Leon checked the battery on his phone. It was low.

Wonderful.

"Leon, can I ask you something?" Tifa asked haughtily.

He inwardly cringed but rolled his neck toward her. "What?"

"If you knew someone was looking for you and was very worried about you, and you knew where they were, wouldn't you let them know you were okay?" She asked tersely.

Her fiery hazel eyes bored into Leon's, but he knew she was watching Cloud out of the corner of her focus. Oh, this was ridiculous. Was she seriously dragging him into this? In six hours, Leon had managed to remain quietly neutral in this whole…whatever tiff she was having with Cloud.

"I'm not taking sides." He said flatly.

"I'm not asking whose side you're on." She snapped. "Just riddle me this."

Leon pursed his lips. "It doesn't matter."

"Of course it matters!" Tifa slapped the bed beside her. "I was looking for Cloud for weeks and he KNEW it and chose not to let me know Sephiroth hadn't killed him."

"It's more complicated than that." Cloud interjected from across the room, arms folded.

Leon exhaled and leaned back against the wall, bracing his ears for another round.

"How? How, Cloud? How complicated can a simple 'oh, hey, by the way, I'm not dead' text be?!" Tifa sat up, livid.

Cloud regarded her with a stony expression. "I didn't want—"

Leon closed his eyes and tuned them out again. At this point, he half hoped the outbreak was infectious. No airborne disease was worse than listening to these two bicker. Well, Tifa was doing most of the long winded bickering. Cloud was just throwing in the counter remark and noncommittal noises.

It kind of made Leon wonder though…

Oh no, now he was pondering things…this never ended well, he thought glumly.

It had been ten years since he'd last seen Rinoa. Over ten years, actually, but trying to figure out just how long it had been gave him a migraine. He decided to just leave it at ten years. A rough decade, and if that didn't make him feel old, he grimaced.

He had looked everywhere. Every world that he had been to since the war started he had searched. Painstakingly and agonizingly, on every planet, in every structure, and practically under every rock, he had looked for her. She was never there. Missing. No one had ever heard of or seen a woman resembling her.

What if she wasn't anywhere?

The thought had crossed his mind more than once. More than several times, come to think of it. It would have been too much of a stretch to conclude that Rinoa was probably dead. He didn't like it. He hated the idea, but with every passing day, it became the more reasonable conclusion. The more unacceptable conclusion.

Tifa had looked for Cloud for weeks. Leon had looked for Rinoa for years. He had more of a right than her to be pissed. Then again, Tifa had eventually found Cloud, and promptly ripped him a new one. Leon found it hard to imagine being so angry with someone he cared about and thought was dead. Then again…he hadn't found Rinoa yet.

Yep, there comes the migraine.

Leon frowned as Cloud apparently said the completely wrong thing and Tifa's voice of indignation reached a new pitch, much to the chagrin of dogs everywhere.

"THAT's your excuse?!" She stood up, practically seething.

Cloud looked more than a little exasperated at this point. "I had no choice."

Leon closed his eyes and tilted his head back against the wall.

His phone beeped and he glanced down, opening the text message from Cid. It read: there's poison in the medicine cabinet if you just want to end it now…Tell those two to shut the fuck up. Leon read it and took a moment to be amused at the realization that Cid knew how to send a text. He closed his phone without responding to the text and scratched his wrist.

Pause.

Leon looked down at his wrist, at the irritated, pink skin. The lack of light and blocked windows didn't give him much visual to work with, but it sure drove home the fact that they were being locked in this forsaken little house for a reason. What if the virus was really active? What if he was infected? His hand hadn't started itching until now, and he usually didn't delude himself with visions of woe and what ifs. They were a waste of time, he thought.

He held his wrist closer to his eyes to get a better look at it. No one had said what the virus's symptoms were. They had just locked him in here with Thing One and Thing Two and left them to it. Basically it could be anything. The irritated skin was warmer than the surrounding skin and a bump was forming. Frowning, he tilted his hand toward the light, Cloud and Tifa's voices falling mute to his ears.

So what if the virus was alive? Well, that would suck, first of all. Especially if it had slipped out and was airborne throughout all of Radiant Garden. He hadn't heard of anywhere else in the town being quarantined, or if they had, no one had told him. He was in the epicenter of the outbreak, so if the virus was active, he had definitely been exposed to it…probably infected too.

The seconds clicked onward on the face of the wall clock.

If the virus…No, stop it. Leon scolded himself, lowering his hand and blinking up at the ceiling. He couldn't help himself…If the virus was active, if he had been exposed, and if he was infected…and if the virus was as aggressive and fatal as it was supposed to be…what then? He'd most likely die, sure, but…

Sure, but?

What kind of sick person thinks like that?

He looked at his wrist again. At a second study, it was an external bump. Small spider bite maybe. He regarded it blankly for a moment and the folded his arms, deeming the whole situation ridiculous. He'd been around Yuffie too long: her hypochondria was rubbing off on him.

Still, it couldn't be too far-fetched, considering they were nearing hour seven of the quarantine with no news from the outside. He was tempted to just leave. If the virus hadn't shown up in seven hours…not even a cough or a sniffle from any of them…

"…at least have the decency to tell me that." Tifa was fuming, although her voice had dropped to a normal decibel.

Her words came in and out, as Leon bothered to register them in varying degrees over the next hour. Cloud lapsed into total silence, for that Leon was both grateful and annoyed. He saw too much of his own reactions in the other man: the lack of confrontation, the avoidance, the vagueness. He'd never noticed that it was actually annoying. He frowned and made a mental note to give Aerith and Yuffie more credit when they got onto him for not speaking his mind up front.

"It wasn't your fight." Cloud cut in.

Leon knew he was the only witness to either the end of their friendship or the beginning of the mending process for it. They had been at each other's throats for so many hours though, that he couldn't really bring himself to put much stock in the situation. He just wanted it to be over and to get out of this house and away from the drama for a while. And for a while, he meant a long time…as long as he could manage.

His ears perked and dragged his mind out of…wherever he'd gone for the last hour…when he heard his name being thrown into the argument.

"…maybe Leon wouldn't be wasting his time like I obviously did!" Tifa's fists were clenched.

It wasn't really his name that caused Leon to come back to alertness. It was the immediate hand to the mouth that Tifa instigated, as though to rewind the words. He looked more directly at her. He wouldn't pretend he'd been listening, but now he was curious. She had that remorseful look that said she wished she hadn't said that…He'd clearly just been insulted…Should he be offended even if he didn't have any idea what she'd said?

Cloud's eyes narrowed, "That's different."

Leon might as well have jumped up and started waving his arms for all the good it would have done at this point. Tifa was putting a lot of effort into not looking at him, and Cloud was just staring hard at her. Maybe it had reached the degree that they just weren't even aware that he was there anymore. Though, by the deer in the headlights look in Tifa's eyes, she was aware.

She lowered both hands to her sides and her fingers curled into fists. "How?" She asked quietly.

Leon tried not to look like an idiot while he tried to remember what they'd been arguing about earlier. Tifa had been looking for Cloud. Cloud knew she was worried but didn't tell her anything. She was mad at him because he was avoiding her even though she was looking for him. And she was somehow relating that to wasting her time and how that related to Leon wasting his time…Oh.

It clicked.

Low blow.

Cloud wasn't biting at the lure she'd thrown out. The argument had deviated. Judging by the previous rounds, now was about the time another lapse of awkward level eight silence settled in. Oh no, not another one, especially after that…

"Because," Leon started to answer Tifa's question, "Rinoa isn't avoiding me like Cloud avoided you."

Amazing how a few words could turn a chilly room cold.

Tifa had to look at him now, her expression anxious. Cloud didn't look at him. He wasn't the one who'd pulled Leon into this. There was no bone to pick there. Leon hadn't known either of them very long, and that had been fine by Leon. Cloud was a loner, and so was Leon. So they left each other alone and the system worked fine. Tifa was the one who made friends and got involved.

"She's probably dead." He said quietly.

Merlin's house might as well have imploded right then.

None of them moved.

It was the first time he'd said the thought aloud. The idea had occurred to him, of course, but he'd never actually considered it as a serious probability…Suddenly it seemed pretty clear. Ten year long searches rarely, if ever, ended well. No one went missing for that long unless they didn't want to be found or they were dead. Leon knew Rinoa would have wanted to be found. She wouldn't have put him through the agony of not knowing. That left only option B.

His phone was ringing.

Averting his eyes to the shuttered windows, Leon answered it.

"What?" He ground out, grimacing at the husky tone that overtook his voice.

"You're all clear. Virus was a dud." Yuffie chirped happily on the other end.

He mumbled something, he wasn't sure what…a 'thanks' or 'good to know' most likely…before hanging up and walking past the two estranged friends without looking at or speaking to either of them. Tifa watched him with a broken, apologetic look. He didn't want to see it. Didn't want to hear it. Cloud took the nonverbal cues and went to pick up his sword, which he'd left propped against the far wall for the duration of the quarantine. No assumptions or apologies from him. Leon had to respect that.

Leon pulled the door open just as Cid and Yuffie were knocking down the barricades. Aerith was already peeling off the plastic lining on the windows. He blinked at the harsh sunlight that attacked his eyes. He hadn't realized after nearly eight hours in semi-darkness that the sun would be so bright. As his vision adjusted, he realized why it was so light.

The sun was reflecting off the white blanket that had spread over the roofs and cobblestones of Radiant Garden. Snow had painted a crystalline canvas over the entire town. It looked like a postcard picture. Just in time for the holiday season. Yuffie was covered in the stuff, her eyes shining with glee even as she shivered in the ankle deep snow.

"Tada! Look what happened while you guys were in there!" She threw her head back and opened her mouth, trying to catch the falling snow on her tongue. "Looks like we'll have a white Christmas!"

Leon grunted and maneuvered past her, clomping through the freshly fallen snow. Yuffie was too wrapped up in her snow…thing to pay much attention, but Aerith and Cid didn't say anything nor make to pursue him, and for that he was grateful. He didn't want to be around any of them right now, so he told himself.

He knew, deep down, that he would regret trudging off alone later. Alone. Why did it have to be that way? Tifa and Cloud had spent the past eight hours doing nothing but bickering and arguing, but at least each knew the other was alive and healthy. Leon couldn't say the same thing. He couldn't say a damn thing.

She was probably dead.

Merry friggin' Christmas to him.


End file.
